Threw on some new grips and have been struggling to get an adjustment I am happy with. When I get the throttle play to what feels right, and I check snap back and full handlebar turn right, she's slow to snap back. When I get it to where the butterfly snaps back nicely at all handlebar positions, it feels like I have too much play in the throttle.

Tips? Please don't say check your service manual.

 

lossen them both all the way loose. start with the idle cable until there is no slack left at the throttle body. tighten that down then take up the slack until you reach the free play you want = by the book. While you have it open get some cable lube and fire it down both tubes making sure it's all slidy in there!

If anything else is making it bind up I don't know!

 

That's just the way it is. The spring on the idle cable housing is going to add some slack. If you want it tight for normal riding then you're going to have to be okay with it binding a bit at full steering travel. Might take a look at throttle cable routing from the handlebars down to the tank to see if anything is getting bent unecessarily when you're at full left and right travel.

 

Think I am close! Turned them both back loose. Tightened throttle until I could fully open the butterfly.... Then tightened the idle to get the right level of play. Took it for a ride and it felt like I had to turn the throttle too far to get to WOT. I can tighten the throttle more to reduce the amount of wrist turn to open the throttle? As long as the butterfly fully closes right? I maybe mistakenly backed off too early on tightening the throttle cable when I could make it "click" with the throttle. Am I on the right track?

 

Naw...it's a 1/4 turn throttle regardless of how tight you make the cables. Having the throttle cable too loose would result in having to turn the throttle more than 1/4 turn (since you have to turn it past the slack), but continuing to tighten will just cause it to not close fully as the trottle cable pulls against the idle cable.

They do make 1/5 turn throttle inserts that tend to be popular on the sportbike side, although I'm not familiar with the availability of these as far as HD throttles go. With one of these, you get full travel in 1/5 turn (72 degrees) vs. the 1/4 turn (90 degrees) you have now.

*deleted the rest of what I typed because it was probably wrong...

 

Might be a dumb question but... did you make sure to lube the throttle sleeve before you put it on the bar? I use a really light silicone grease that I use on my fishing reels, makes them extremely slick. Other than that, I've found if you try to get ALL of the play out of the cables, the throttle is slow to return. I usually adjust the throttle side until there is almost no play, then tighten the return side until the throttle gets slow to return.. then back of a hair. That seems to do the best job of removing play without making the throttle seem "sticky".